Who was Dr. Maria Montessori?
Dr. Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first female doctor in Rome. She devoted her energy to the process of normal child development and how human beings can reach their potential more fully. She observed children as they interacted with their environment. Dr. Montessori identified positive human behaviors that are universal tendencies and designed educational environments to encourage these traits. She developed educational materials and tested, retested and refined them until she was convinced they were the best ones for teaching a specific concept. Dr. Montessori also field-tested the materials across ages, socio-economic backgrounds and different cultures. Her idea that children learn through active exploration with their environment and her identification of developmental stages in childhood are in line with Piaget’s theories on cognitive development, which are very important in early childhood education today. Some of the most common aspects of current preschool classrooms,
